Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Too much of everything

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I really wanted to like this film. I don't hate it, but it really isn't that good. It was so forgettable I forgot it and mistakenly rented it a second time thinking I hadn't seen it. Not even Robin Williams (the reason I queued it up a second time) brief appearance is enough to save it from its mediocrity. It delivers what the trailer promises. If you are into these kinds of stories and haven't seen it, you won't be disappointed. Still, it could have been better. Maybe.

A woman known as Grace (Emma Thompson) suffers recurring visions of someone killing a woman. Grace is suffering from amnesia and is in a catatonic state whereby she only speaks when she yells things out in her sleep. Grace is released in to the care of private eye Mike Church (Kenneth Branagh) who attempts to try and piece Grace's life back together and attempts to get to the bottom of who Grace is and also why she is having these strange visions. Church gets some unexpected help from antiques dealer and hypnotist Franklyn Madson (Derek Jacobi). Through a series of hypnosis sessions, Grace starts to re-discover her past life, but forming these memories again comes at a cost...Dead Again has a very impressive opening few minutes; the credits showing various tabloid articles and then the opening scene with Roman Strauss (also Kenneth Branagh) and news reporter Gray Baker (Andy Garcia) was quite chilling and it also allowed Branagh to be Hannibal Lecter for a few minutes.Once the impressive opener is out of the way, the film takes a rather slow-burning approach in developing its story. Yes it is a slow film, but it's not a film that I found boring. As with any good mystery film, all the building blocks are put in place and every scene gradually adds another piece to the puzzle. As a whole, the story is engaging, suspenseful and unpredictable and I must admit for the most part I was interested in how the events were unfolding and in which direction the story was going to take. All these elements are what make the film worth watching. However...I have to admit to being taken surprise by the turn of events later in the film specifically with regards to the idea that both Roman and Margaret had been reincarnated. I mean sure there had to be some link back to their past, but this was not what I was expecting. It becomes even more ludicrous when we learn that they've been reincarnated as different genders. It's one of those twists where I praise it because of how much it surprised me, but also one that I want to condemn for being so ludicrous. However, I'm leaning more towards being positive about because it's a rather unique twist and because it did surprise me. The issue I had with this twist is that it felt like screenwriter Scott Frank was trying to force his own beliefs on to his audience. It isn't implied here that they have been reincarnated or even suggested, but we're actually told that they have been reincarnated. To me, forcing such an agenda on people based on a concept which is merely a myth or superstition is arrogant and rather silly. Don't get me wrong I'm all for exploring the concept of reincarnation and I'm all for getting people thinking about it, but to make believe that it is real is misleading to say the least. It's heavy-handedness like this that brings the film down slightly which is a shame because it is very effective in almost every other area.Despite the heavy-handed and questionable reincarnation twist, the film does get a lot of praise from me for having an involving, suspenseful and unpredictable storyline. Many of the performances here help make the picture enjoyable and the likes of Branagh, Jacobi and Thompson were all excellent - although I only found Branagh compelling as Roman Strauss and didn't think he was as good in his role of private eye Mike Church. Garcia is OK in a supporting role, Williams did OK with what he had to work with - his character was interesting, but his role was severely underwritten. Wayne Knight was annoying and for me was an unnecessary and distracting addition to the film.As it is Dead Again is a very good film, but one that could have been even better with a less heavy-handed approach.

Mike Church is a private detective who specialises in finding missing people. He takes on the case of a woman who he calls Grace. She is suffering from amnesia and keeps having nightmares involving the murder of a pianist, Margaret, by her husband Roman Strauss in the late 1940s. Church seeks the help of an antiques dealer with the gift of hypnosis. The hypnosis sessions begin to reveal some surprises that connect Mike and Grace, and reveal the truth about the murder in the 1940s.....Branagh attempts to do a Hitchcock, but with all the red herrings and barmy narrative, it ends up more like a Brian DePalma homage, which isn't a negative, because DePalma is a genius.But Hitchcock was more of a straight director, more or less getting to the point, and never really made you guess of who, why, and where.Here it's very twisty and turny right up until the last moment, and more or less every character introduced into the film is suspect.But it's expertly done, and looks fantastic, and even though Branagh is miscast as Mike, he excels in the directors chair and as Strauss. The black and white scenes are the best thing here, and have a really Kubrickian element to them.All in all, if you like whodunnits, this is a little treat that hasn't really been seen.

Dead Again is one of the best films of the 1990s. It is a psychological thriller that will require your full attention. This includes the opening credits which provide critical background information. In the opening credits, you see old newspaper clippings from 1949 about the shocking death of pianist Margaret Strauss (Emma Thompson). Based on the clippings, we learn that Margaret's husband, conductor-composer Robert Strauss (Kenneth Branagh) claims a thief killed Margaret but he is later arrested for the crime after his fingerprints are found on a pair of scissors. Testimony from witnesses as well as his refusal to testify results in a guilty verdict and Strauss gets the death penalty. Most of the newspaper articles were written by Gray Baker (Andy Garcia) who visits Strauss at his request on the day of his execution. Strauss asks Baker to print that "He loved his wife and that he will love her forever" while getting his hair sheard with scissors by one of the guards. Baker asks Strauss why he is not afraid of death and Strauss states that he is not because things are "far from over". When Baker states, "But you still killed her, didn't you?", Strauss gets up and whispers something in his ear. Strauss is then escorted down the hallway to the death chamber. As Baker gets up to leave, he looks at the newspaper that was next to Strauss and notices the scissors that the guard had laid down are missing. We then see the scissors in Strauss's hand as Baker runs down the hallway yelling "stop" to Strauss. At the end of the hallway is a vision of Margaret Strauss and then we see Robert Strauss reach out and begin to stab her. We're instantly snapped forward into color (from black and white) and a modern day Emma Thompson awakes from her nightmare where she appears to live on the same property as where the Strauss' used to live. Now all of this happens during the first five minutes of the movie and if you're not hooked, then something's really wrong! The film goes back and forth between the past (always shown in black and white) and current day (shown in color). Suspicions abound as we piece together details from past lives and how they relate to the current characters. In doing so, we are left on the edge of our seats as new facts and twists are revealed.This is a "thinking person's movie" with a load of originality. If you like Hitchcock movies or you find films like the Matrix and Inception to be thrilling because of the twists and/or strong focus you must have while watching, you'll appreciate this film.